Malacañang has given assurances of a full hazard pay to all health workers to allay fears that the government has supposedly cut the benefits for nurses and other health frontliners battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque made the assurance after several medical workers expressed frustration for cuts and delays in receiving their hazard pay, while others reported they haven’t been paid in months.
Roque said he had asked the Department of Health to ensure the urgent grant of hazard allowance to nurses and other frontline health workers.
He said that President Duterte’s order on the additional benefit for these frontliners remained in effect.
“The hazard pay has not been reduced because hazard pay is based on an order issued by the President,” he said in an online press briefing.
November last year, President Duterte signed administrative Order 35 that grants active hazard duty pay of up to P3,000 per month to all human resources for health such as medical, allied medical staff and other personnel in the public sector serving in the frontlines during the coronavirus pandemic.
The grant will be exempted from income tax and will come in addition to any other similar benefits under existing law, issuances, and rules and regulations.
In another AO, Duterte approved the grant of a special risk allowance not exceeding P5,000 per month to public and private health workers directly catering to or in contact with COVID-19 patients.
Roque said he already relayed the concerns of. Health workers to the DOH and were looking into the report on the reduction on hazard pay.
At the same time, health workers demand full hazard pay even for those quarantined.
Nurses are demanding from the government to give the health workers their hazard pay in full even if they had to be quarantined amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health workers are supposed to receive a P5,000 special risk allowance and P3,000 active hazard duty pay per month.
Some nurses said many of them didn't receive the P8,000 in full.
Only those who worked for 22 days for a month would receive the full amount. Those who have not completed the 22 days will have deductions.
According to Philippine Orthopedic Center Employees Union president Sean Velchez, several nurses had not received the extra pay in full because they had to undergo mandatory quarantine.
"The problem is when a nurse has to undergo quarantine, they (sic) will not receive the SRA or they will only receive a small amount of the SRA,” Velchez said.
The Philippine Nurses Association had called on the government to give the necessary benefits without condition.
"Health workers' lives are always at risk. We are having a hard time getting what the government promised us,” PNA president Melbert Reyes said.
"It's painful that we have to beg for these allowances that the government promised,” he added.
The Department of Health said no deductions must be made in the benefits of the health workers under quarantine.
The DOH said it would release a new department memorandum to clarify the matter.